You received without charge, give without charge

Have you ever thought about what is the cost of the Gospel? Can we put a price on it?

I think, we should put two prices on it. The first price is how much it should cost us to receive it. The second price is how much we “charge,” so to speak, to give the Gospel.

So how much should the Gospel cost us?

I think that it’s of infinite value.  We could never afford it – financially speaking.  The Gospel is priceless.

As far as how much we should “charge” to give the Gospel to others, the answer is that it’s free. Because we have no right to charge or expect anything so as to give away something that we don’t own.  The truth is that the Gospel belongs to Christ and He offers it freely.

What about the second half of today’s Gospel?  You know, Jesus said: “give without charge”. I think that this tells us that we are to offer the Gospel to others free of charge.  But this action of freely giving the Gospel brings with it a sort of hidden requirement. The giving of the Gospel requires that we give of ourselves.  And that means we must give of ourselves freely.  What’s the justification for giving everything of ourselves freely?  There is just one justification – we have received everything “without cost”.

The simple fact is that the Gospel is all about a total free gift to us which requires a total free gift of ourselves to others. The Gospel isn’t some theory but a person – Jesus Christ.  And when He comes and lives in us freely, we must then become a total and free gift to others.

Since I came to the parish, many times I’ve experienced a lot of generosity from parishioners just for free. Just because of friendship, just because we all are brothers and sisters…

Today I’m really impressed of all our stewards, who without any charge, without fear of coronavirus… just put themselves to the service for all of us.

I can imagine… they are very often on duty here after long day at work – but never mind – they are here with us and for us… That’s the Gospel in action, in life, isn’t it?

You know… many churches in our diocese didn’t open yet for public Mass – because lack of stewards. They couldn’t find enough volunteers for reopening. Some of the churches still locked for private prayer… We are so lucky to have such good people who answered for our request and became stewards for us.

Let us think, today, on both our complete receptivity of the Gospel as well as our complete willingness to give. May our understanding and reception of this glorious gift of God transform us into a gift for others.